The “President’s Own” United States Marine Band plays more than marches, as demonstrated on a new 2012 recording devoted to transcriptions of keyboard works. Tracks include Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, David Rakowski’s Sibling Revelry, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. You’ll love these concert band renditions of original piano works. (Altissimo)

This newly re-mastered 20th anniversary edition CD features over 500 vocalists and instrumentalists from Brigham Young University combined in a concert celebration of beloved American folk hymns. A bestseller since it's inception, A Thanksgiving of American Folk Hymns has been seen throughout the years on over 200 public television stations. The program features arrangements of beautiful hymn melodies in performances that inspires a spirit of gratitude all year long and leaves audiences profoundly moved. The BYU Concert Choir of 100 advanced singers has acquired an outstanding reputation for captivating performances of a wide variety of repertoire taken from the great choral literature, encompassing many different styles and genres. The 180 voiced BYU Men's Chorus, founded in 1958, are thought to be the largest collegiate male choral organization in the country. The Women's Chorus is a large group of select, versatile singers well known for it's beautiful, blended sound from pristine, quiet unison to the majesty of large textured sonorities.

Karl L. King wrote more than one hundred and fifty marches over his lifetime, many of which live on and are frequently performed to this day. His name exists among a pantheon of American march composers, including John Philip Sousa, Henry Fillmore and others. King’s work is unique in its combination of the quick precision of circus marches, with the regality of a military parade. Now, the highlights of Karl King’s work are available on one CD.

Karl King’s Greatest Hits includes the very best marches from the composer’s repertoire, including Barnum and Bailey’s Favorite, The Big Cage and The Melody Shop, all performed by the bands of The United States Military. This album is one of the few collections of Karl King’s marches, and may rank the best among them.

This selection of works by Gottschalk, Barber, Wild and Gershwin give vivid insights into the diversity of American music written during a period spanning almost two centuries, a diversity shaped by a uniquely American musical idiom. The young Georgian-German pianist Catherine Gordeladze’s has established herself as one of the most remarkable and versatile musicians of her generation. “…phenomenal technique, perfect memory, distinctive creativity.” - Frankfurter Rundschau

The centerpiece of this program is the first ever recording of the Hiawatha Melodrama, a concert work for narrator and orchestra designed to show the kinship between Dvořák's New World Symphony and Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hiawatha, which Dvořák said had inspired him in the symphony. It takes music from the symphony, as well as passages from the American Suite and Violin Sonatina, and fuses them with the poem, which is recited by a bass-baritone. Also included is music by Arthur Farwell, who was influenced by Dvořák, and was a proponent of Native American music. This recording thus celebrates the crosscurrent of influences between the Czech composer and American music and culture.

•Heritage of the March is a series of 185 vinyl records of marches and galops released from 1973 to the early 1980’s. It remains as the largest single march music record series in history, featuring close to 3,000 different marches! Volumes 7 and 8 feature the marches of Russell Alexander, Gabriel Pares, Joseph Olivadoti, and Franz Lehar, a combination of American, French, and Hungarian composers. These marches highlight the best of the genre from both the United States and Europe, re-mastered for CD release. Altissimo! Recordings is proud to release the next installment of this classic collection as a two-volume set.

Founded in 1969, the 18-member United States Navy Band, Commodores, have been performing big band jazz for the Navy and the nation for over 40 years. They're held in high regard nationwide by concert patrons and critics alike, and have compiled an impressive roster of jazz artists who've guested with them (James Moody, Branford Marsalis, Chris Potter, and many more). This album includes an array of great jazz tunes, including “Caravan”, “Waltz For Debby” and “Lester Left Town”

An Evening in Concert presents a typical Army Blues concert, one carefully crafted to appeal to a wide range of jazz enthusiasts. Included here are performances of Benny Goodman's Stompin' at the Savoy, Richard Rodgers' My Romance and Billy Strayhorn's Intimacy of the Blues. Drummer Louis Bellson makes a guest appearance on The Mode, Man, the album's final track.

Ten world premier recordings of new arrangements of African-American spirituals.

• Tenor Kerry Jennings performs songs by four major contemporary American composers. • Mr. Jennings maintains an active singing career whilst also being an Assistant Professor of Voice at DePauw University, U.S.A.

Around the time The King's Singers was starting up, one of the most productive periods of songwriting in history was coming to a close in America, starting with composers such as Gershwin, Kern, Berlin and Porter in the early 1920s, and continuing through to the early 1960s. In this new 2-CD studio recording - featuring brand new a cappella arrangements by jazz composer and arranger Alexander L'Estrange, and swing-orchestra performances with the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra - The King's Singers bring their own unique performance style to this wonderful music.

This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD players.

Also available on standard DVD

The last days of the American icon Walt Disney form a powerful and poignant subject for Philip Glass's latest opera, which was filmed at its first performances in Madrid in January 2013. Phelim McDermott's spectacular production is worthy of Disney's own visual imagination and its definitive influence on American culture, while in the pit is the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, an experienced and authoritative champion of the composer's hypnotically beautiful music, which gives wings to Rudy Wurlitzer's operatic transformation of Peter Stephan Jungk's novel, using both fact and fiction to peer into Disney's troubled psyche as illness forces him to confront his mortality.

What the press said: ''...one of the crowning events of the past year's globe-trotting celebration of Mr. Glass's 75th birthday.'' The New York Times

Philip Glass
THE PERFECT AMERICAN
(Blu-ray Disc Version)

Walt Disney – Christopher Purves
Roy – David Pittsinger
Dantine – Donald Kaasch
Hazel George – Janis Kelly
Lillian Disney – Marie McLaughlin
Sharon – Sarah Tynan
Diane – Nazan Fikret
Lucy / Josh – Rosie Lomas

The Improbable Skills Ensemble
Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Phelim McDermott, stage director

Recorded live from the Teatro Real, Madrid, February 2013

Bonus:
- Cast gallery

Picture format: 1080i High Definition
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 120 mins
No. of Discs: 1 (Blu-ray)

Also available on Blu-ray

The last days of the American icon Walt Disney form a powerful and poignant subject for Philip Glass's latest opera, which was filmed at its first performances in Madrid in January 2013. Phelim McDermott's spectacular production is worthy of Disney's own visual imagination and its definitive influence on American culture, while in the pit is the conductor Dennis Russell Davies, an experienced and authoritative champion of the composer's hypnotically beautiful music, which gives wings to Rudy Wurlitzer's operatic transformation of Peter Stephan Jungk's novel, using both fact and fiction to peer into Disney's troubled psyche as illness forces him to confront his mortality.

What the press said: ''...one of the crowning events of the past year's globe-trotting celebration of Mr. Glass's 75th birthday.'' The New York Times
Philip Glass
THE PERFECT AMERICAN

Walt Disney – Christopher Purves
Roy – David Pittsinger
Dantine – Donald Kaasch
Hazel George – Janis Kelly
Lillian Disney – Marie McLaughlin
Sharon – Sarah Tynan
Diane – Nazan Fikret
Lucy / Josh – Rosie Lomas

The Improbable Skills Ensemble
Madrid Teatro Real Chorus and Orchestra
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor

Phelim McDermott, stage director

Recorded live from the Teatro Real, Madrid, February 2013

Bonus:
- Cast gallery

Picture format: NTSC 16:9
Sound format: LPCM 2.0 / DTS 5.1
Region code: 0 (worldwide)
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean
Running time: 120 mins
No. of DVD: 1

The Heritage of the March Collection remains the largest single march music record series in history. Altissimo is continuing the release of this series with Volumes 5 & 6 in a two-CD set. Volume 5 features the marches of Frank Losey & Gian Mantagazzi. Volume 6 features the marches of Charles Barnhouse & Viktor Widqvist.

In “Our American Roots” Feldman applies his talent and skill to an all-American program of music for cello and piano—to include a pair of rarely heard cello sonatas by Barber and Walker. The remainder of the program consists of arrangements of musical Americana: arias from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and his Preludes, and two movements from Copland’s Billy the Kid.